Closed door dining

I didn’t expect to have cheesecake and dulce de leche, smashed into my face by an Argentinean Producer in an elegant art gallery at 1.30am. Always expect the unexpected, in a city like Buenos Aires. I was at the city’s fashionable new dining experience, "Closed Door Dining". Innovative gastronomes, gather a small group in a different location every week, and prepare a meal to provoke, and stimulate the senses. Budding chefs can showcase their skills in an ever changing location, in this case, a modern art gallery in trendy, Palermo. A young and handsome Max Paarlberg, dressed in a rainbow colored chef’s jacket, was making an impression behind a small makeshift kitchen counter, as he sliced shiny salmon chunks into delicate slathers of sashimi. Inspired by the artwork whose thematic idea was to break the boundaries of the traditional theme, Max decided to take this idea and reflect it in his food for the night. A first course of Chinese Prawn toast was served on a cassette case. Mine was Julio Iglesias, whereby lay a mouthful of sweet and sour richness. Every course thereafter, was a clever, creative masterpiece, using recycled pieces of material to eat from; a spicy pumpkin soup in a glass coke bottle, Pork stirfry and rice, on a Brick. Lastly, everyone was given transparent plastic gloves. We were asked to put the palms of our hands facing up. Next thing you know, a creamy vanilla cheesecake is being squirted out of a plastic cone into our palms topped with gooey dulce de leche. Laughter ballooned the room as everyone started to lick the desert from their hands. Needless to say, it all got a little out of hand and next thing you know, cheesecake was being covered all over my face. By venturing beyond the formalities of a normal dinner, by cutting any boundaries between strangers, friends are made in Argentina, by the spirit in which they eat.